What’s key to Effective Enterprise Architecture?

Brian Cameron, the leading authority in Enterprise Architecture or EA talks about:

EA integration

Evolving view of IT/Business alignment

Challenges to alignment

Effective business design

Effective business architectures

Adaptive EA

EA value creation

The best resources

EA frameworks

Interview with: Brian Cameron, Professor and Executive Director Center for Enterprise Architecture, Founding President FEAPO (Federation of EA Professional Organizations). I will be joining Brian at the FEAPO summit and board meeting next week in LA hosted by the IEEE-CS.

Interview Time Index (MM:SS) and Topic

:00:47: Brian, can you provide an update of your activities and wins since our last interview? “….Quite a bit of activity going on here at Penn State. Our Center for Enterprise Architecture was officially recognized by the university this past spring so we’re an official research center now at the university. We’re in the final stages of launching our new online professional Masters Program….Our undergraduate curriculum in Enterprise Architecture is being rolled out as we speak as well. FEAPO has coalesced and is taking off….”

:01:49: You were one of the major presenters at the World CIO Forum and you also did panel sessions. Can you describe some of those sessions? “….Great experience; CIO’s from all over the globe. A lot of interest in Enterprise Architecture, a lot of great discussions, speakers and panelists. It was an honour to present in this forum….”

:02:41: What is the current state of FEAPO and your plans for 2012? “….FEAPO has almost 20 organizations and counting. We’ve organized around several working groups and are pushing several initiatives forward that we feel are needed in the profession….We are doing an inventory of all the different projects and artifacts. Our next meeting is coming up this March in Los Angeles and the IEEE computer society has offered to host it….”

:03:54: Outside of the university, what do you have planned for 2012 and how will the audience benefit? “….I’ve been invited to do a number of speaking engagements in 2012. We will also be doing some speaking at different corporate events….We have a number of large research and education projects that we’re doing for some of our corporate members….”

:04:47: Getting back to the university, what do you have planned in your executive programs? “….With executive education in general, we are in the process of planning a portfolio of programs and partnerships….We feel we have a unique program consisting of industry experts and faculty/consultants from many different organizations, that have come together to look at alignment in terms of producing business value, and to look at some unique processes and tools for helping to analyze, plan and tactically implement over time enterprise integration transformation and the resulting alignment….”

:07:03: Why did you create the education program: Enterprise Integration & Transformation: Beyond IT/Business Alignment? “….This program was evolved over time in consultation with many different corporations, government entities, etc. and it’s unlike any program that’s out there currently….We’re not talking specifically about alignment in the traditional sense, but we are looking at how we produce business value through enterprise integration and transformation, and the application of Enterprise Architecture not just in IT but the organization as a whole….”

:08:03: How would you define the evolving view of IT/Business alignment? “….Enterprise Architecture has the promise of well-proven methodologies etc. for analyzing, planning and tactical implementation of large-scale, hopefully well-aligned IT projects. Taking what we’ve learned in Enterprise Architecture and applying that to the organization as a whole is something we are just starting to think about doing….In many ways this is going to be groundbreaking and we bring this perspective, tools etc. into this executive education program….”

:10:58: Within this environment and eco-system, how do you assess your challenges? “….Understanding the organization as a whole, understanding the nature of modern organizations….looking at the extended enterprise as an extension of the core organization that needs to be understood and analyzed as well….”

:12:23: What are key points in effective business design? “….When we talk about effective business design, we’ll start with dovetailing from the discussion of how modern organizations are structured and function to how our business design functions need to be structured for the future. We’ll talk about some of the traditional designs and about some of the more adaptive strategies that bring together some of the discipline we have been developing in enterprise architecture, bring it away from its IT roots, and take a lot of the good activity in the business architecture side and bring these two groups together because IT is just part of the business….”

:13:54: What are the considerations for effective business architectures? “….The business architecture side is traditionally one of the major areas of enterprise architecture. However in some organizations it’s a separate entity and the EA organization is still traditionally under the IT organization. These things I believe have to change in the future….”

:15:10: What is meant by adaptive Enterprise Architecture? “….The evolving view of Enterprise Architecture really takes enterprise architecture away from its IT roots and applies the methodologies, frameworks etc. that have been developed over the last 20 years in IT, and then applies that discipline and planning to areas outside of IT. It looks at enterprise architecture as an active process….”

:17:32: How would you summarize the value created? “….The value created by enterprise integration transformation and enterprise architecture is applied to the enterprise, not just to the IT organization. These initiatives typically done over 3 to 5 or more years take a very long-term view….”

:19:46: How is this work at Penn State unique and clearly differentiated? “….By and large it hasn’t been addressed in current literature or current research….Through our interactions with a broad cross-section of organizations and industries, I believe we have a unique perspective for connecting dots and the ability to investigate, research and contribute to the profession in ways that many other universities and many other organizations are not organized to do at this time….”

:21:09: Since we last talked, please share some stories from your work? “….One of the areas that continues to please and amaze me is the amount of interest we’re getting in our new professional Masters Program in Enterprise Architecture with absolutely no marketing….”

:24:27: Within your program do you encourage mapping in between the different frameworks? “….We’re in the process of coming out with a White Paper which does a mapping, compare and contrast between the new iterations of the popular EA frameworks. Within the last year most of the major groups have come out with new versions of their frameworks and methodologies. We are doing a mapping, compare and contrast paper on these new versions….[Editor: Link will be posted when the White Paper is released]….”

:25:13: Which are your top recommended resources and why? “….CIO magazine….Journal of Enterprise Transformation….Journal of Enterprise Architecture….Forrester and Gartner Research….ACM Tech Packs on Enterprise Architecture….”

:26:23: You choose the areas — provide your top predictions for 2012 and their implications/opportunities? “….I’ll keep my predictions to Enterprise Architecture related areas….The role of the CIO and the role of the Chief Architect will increasing converge on one another….The emphasis on Enterprise Architecture in organizations of all types and sizes will increase….The Federation of Enterprise Architecture Professional Organizations will continue to mature, coalesce and really start making significant headway in 2012….”

:30:28: Can you talk about the components of a mature profession, why they matter, and the importance of Professionalism? [See www.ipthree.org and the Global Industry Council, http://www.ipthree.org/about-ip3/global-advisory-council] “….One of our goals at Penn State is to see Enterprise Architecture become a real profession, a mainstream academic discipline, and not have what we’re doing being just a unique set of programs at Penn State. It’s going to take some time and a lot of effort on many parts for this to happen, until Enterprise Architecture (and other traditional parts of IT for that matter) have the same recognition as a profession as accounting or electrical engineering, etc. Some of the components that I see as an academic that are needed in a profession: Industry coalescence and agreement on what are the core components to this profession, which can include things like career frameworks, career paths….”

:35:10: If you were doing this interview, what questions would you ask and then what would be your answers? “….What trends are we seeing in executive education?….What formats of executive education are we exploring or implementing with different groups?….”

Brian Cameron is founding President of FEAPO, the Federation of Enterprise Architecture Professional Organizations. In addition, Brian is Professor of Practice and Executive Director of the Enterprise Architecture Initiative in the College of Information Sciences and Technology at the Pennsylvania State University. Within the College of Information Sciences and Technology, he works with a wide portfolio of companies on a variety of consulting engagements, ranging from systems integration projects to enterprise architecture planning and design. Through his academic work, Cameron has consulted with organizations such as Avaya, AT&T Wireless, Raytheon, Accenture, Oracle, EMC Corp., NSA, U.S. Marine Corps, The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, and many others.

His primary research and consulting interests include enterprise architecture, enterprise systems integration, information management and storage, and the use of simulations and gaming in education. The main focus areas for his teaching efforts are senior-level capstone enterprise integration, enterprise architecture, and information technology consulting & storage architecture courses. Dr. Cameron is currently developing new curricular materials for enterprise integration (through funding from NSF), including a textbook to be published by Wiley & Sons Publishing. He has also designed and taught executive education sessions for senior IT executives. Session topics include Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), Business Process Management (BPM), Strategic Alignment of IT & Business Strategies, IT Governance, and IT Portfolio Management.